AP Psych Unit 10: Social Psychology
confirmation bias
a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence
conformity
adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard
aggression
any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy
what reduces obedience?
free will, other dissenters
social facilitation
improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others
superordinate goals
shared goals and joint efforts between groups can overcome differences among people
communication
skilled mediators can help hostile parties express differences in a positive way in an effort to establish cooperative relationships
social psychology
study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another
ways for reducing aggression
superordinate goals, conciliatory acts, communication
polarization
tendency for a group's predominant opinion to become stronger or more extreme after an issue is discussed
door-in-the-face phenomenon
tendency for people who won't agree to a large task, but then agree when a smaller request is made
obedience
the tendency for people to override even the most intense and extreme personal feelings when confronted by the orders of an "authority figure"
self-serving bias
the tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame failure on external factors
foot-in-the-door phemomenon
the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
in-group bias
the tendency to favor one's own group
social inhibition
the tendency to perform complex or difficult tasks more poorly in the presence of others
out-group homogeneity effect
the tendency to see members of out-groups as very similar to one another
ingroup
"Us"—people with whom we share a common identity.
outgroup
"them" - those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup
Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment
-an experiment in which people were assigned to be guards or prisoners- studied how drastically behaviors can change under certain influences -guards and prisoners had separate outfits which promoted deindividuation; guards eventually lost their sense of personal responsibility and forgot the prisoners were individuals
biological influences of aggression
-evolutionary psychologists say humans are instinctively aggressive animals -alcohol leads to aggression -hormone testosterone correlates with aggressive behavior
social influences of aggression
-exposure to violent media has high correlation with aggressive behavior -social rejection and permissive/authoritarian parenting increases aggressive tendencies
Stanley Milgram's Obedience Study
-had a "teacher" give shocks to a "learner" if he gave the wrong answer....found that 63 percent would give all shocks even when the learner was screaming in pain
Asch's conformity experiment
-showed that individuals will often conform to an opinion held by the group -group of students pick the incorrect answer for the matching line and confuse the person who doesn't know what's going on (that one person changes their original answer to match the group)
Factors that promote conformity
-size of the majority (resisted groups of 1-2 and majority over 7 people) -unanimity of the majority (if 1 person disagrees, naive subject is more likely to disagree w/ majority) -characteristics of the majority (the naive person more likely to conform if they desire to be part of the majority) -difficulty of the task (conformity increases as task difficulty increases)
bystander effect
-the finding that a person is less likely to provide help when there are other bystanders -as group size increases, chances of help decreases (cause = diffusion of responsibility)
deindividuation
A phenomenon that occurs when immersion in a group causes people to become less aware of their individual values and personal responsibility
stereotype
a generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people
halo effect
judgement of a person or thing is influenced by the overall beauty/attractiveness of that person or thing; men and women value different characteristics though most are attracted to similar people
prejudice
learned prejudgement directed to people based on their membership to a social group (leads to discrimination, a differential treatment based on this prejudgement)
what promotes obedience?
learned values, powers of role, embarrassment
central route persuasion
occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and factual information (they analyze the relevant details)
conciliatory acts
reciprocal placating can reduce tensions between opposing groups
ethnocentrism
the belief that one's own culture, customs, and values is superior to others
mere exposure effect
the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them
frustration-aggression hypothesis
the principle that frustration- the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal- creates anger which can generate aggression
cognitive dissonance
the psychological discomfort a person experiences between his or her attitude is inconsistent with their behavior (and they are motivated to reduce this discomfort)
groupthink
the tendency for a cohesive decision-making group to ignore/dismiss reasonable alternatives; based on pressure to conform and remain loyal to the group
fundamental attribution error
the tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the influence of personality
social loafing
the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable
what promotes deindividuation?
uniforms, size of group, group identity/expectations
peripheral route persuasion
when people focus on emotional appeals and outlying information/social cues